Back in the day, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was a fusty old thing. But then every major special interest group was fusty. The pre-mimeograph technology of the day made agitating for a cause slower than a teenage boy walking by a Shir Elmaliach photo shoot. These days, where bloggers can post a heads-up as fast as their fingers can type, any organization that isn’t light on its feet (cough NRA cough) risks being marginalized if not replaced by smarter, faster, feistier folks. How long ago was the Firearms Coalition formed? A couple of weeks? And now, before the NRA launches its anti-AWB mag cap ads, the FPC’s hit the net with the image above. Not the best grip girlfriend, I’d have gone with a smile instead of FOAD and since when do 99 percent of the U.S. population own a gun? Other than that . . . I wonder when the NRA ads will appear and how white bread they’ll be. That said, it’s all good, right?

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38 COMMENTS

  1. “I’d have gone with a smile instead of a FOAD look….
    I wonder when the NRA ads will appear and how white bread they’ll be.”

    1) If she smiled, the anti’s would say she’s dreaming of shooting an innocent yoof.
    2) Robert, do you have a thing against white men?

      • I’ve given more in the past month that I’ve given my entire life to other political causes. Politicians should note that.

        • NRA Life Membership, now discounted from $1000 to $300.

          (888) 678-7894

          Upgraded mine yesterday to life.

    • One thing the NRA has been very effective at is killing government funding for gun research.
      “The federal Centers for Disease Control has cut firearms safety research by 96 percent since the mid-1990s, according to one estimate. Congress, pushed by the gun lobby, in 1996 put restrictions on CDC funding of gun research into the budget. Restrictions on other agencies were added in later years. The NRA, the main lobbyist for gun rights, has taken credit for the research halt.”
      http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-urge-end-limits-gun-safety-research-194015136.html

      • That’s because the CDC kept running tax payer funded “studies” to “prove” that there was a connection between gun ownership and violent crime. They ran and ignored study after study that came up with no proof of the connection. And they were determined to spare no taxpayer dollars to keep pushing study after study until they finally got one that would make their case. At which point they would have ran a pr blitz against gun ownership.

        The CDC was on record as saying they didn’t believe guns should be in private hands and they were determined to use public money to prove what has been an illusive point. It was all political.

  3. If you really want to launch an effective ad campaign that squashes the left’s attack on gun culture, you have to get rid of the misconceptions:

    1. You need to show everyone what gun owners really look like. All over the US. Once the “redneck-hunter-weekend-warrior-tacticool persona” is debunked, anti-gunners and the leftists will perhaps realize that gun owners are just like everyone else. We could be that person next to you on the train, on the bus, your neighbor, your lawyer, your doctor, your relative, or taking care of your sick mother, or your kids.

    In fact, we are you. The only difference being, “we” just happen to choose to carry a gun for a multitude of legitimate and lawful reasons and we choose to do so responsibly.

    2. Second, we need to debunk the term “assault weapon”. Show pictures of fertilizer (Oklahoma bombing), box cutter (9/11), and all the other tool people have used throughout history to harm other people that were not banned and are still very much in use today.

    The purpose? To illustrate that anything can be used as a “killing tool” in the hands of a crazy person or criminal. Mental health is the issue. Not the tools.

    3. We need to start getting the real statistics out there with clearly labelled sources that are easy to find and irrefutable. Educating the average Joe and Jane about gun statistics is the only way to counter the fear-mongering media’s BS and skewed stats.

    Specifically, we need to show just how ineffective the previous AWB was in reducing crime. And we need to show all the real strategies that are successful all over the world in countering violent crime (ie. guns for any responsible citizen that wants one).

    4. We also need to debunk the myth that any and all gun owners are just mass shooters “waiting to snap”. This goes with #1. It’s ridiculous.

    5. We need to go public about DGU statistics and the staggering number of them we have. We need to compare that to the police force as well as a positive association.

    People simply don’t know how many DGUs happen and how many DGUs prevent mass shootings from happening. This will debunk gun-free-zones as well.

    Information is power and that’s what needs to get out there in the public. I would like for the US to finally get their facts straight and for the media to be outed as the fear-inducing idiots and cesspools of misinformation that they are.

    Once all the facts are out there, then people can make up their own minds.

    • I think that breaking the wall erected between gun facts and gun fiction by the mass media is a difficult proposition at best. As such, I really didn’t ever get worked up too much over the NRA’s failure to reach out more broadly.

      The NRA does what it does, leverage our numbers and contributions for influence and that’s about it. Unfortunately, it does leave the NRA at a tactical disadvantage when it has to counter 24 hour agit-prop by the mass media. And when you think about the resources the NRA has, its failure to deploy them to help reshape the current narrative is maddening.

      Unfortunately, even if the NRA knows and/or is aware of this on some level, like any large bureaucracy, it cannot overcome institutional inertia overnight. I get the impression it is still in reactive mode and is having difficulties coming up with a comprehensive strategy dealing with the post Sandy Hook fallout do to the high level of vitriol and the operational tempo of the civilian disarmament campaign. I will have to say, though, there was a simple elegance in its proposal regarding hardening schools as targets. And while I may agree that some violence could be related to cultural artifacts, like video games, proclaiming it on national TV is not going to get gun owners off the X.

      I tend to agree with RF that smaller, newer, and more agile organizations, especially local 2A organizations, such as the CCDL here in CT, are the key to countering the current campaign.

      Now, the above being said, the strategy you laid out is sound, compelling and clarifies a lot of things many of us know intuitively, but are usually articulated as “man, Wayne really is a bad spokesman. We need the NUGE’.”

      It is, in a word, awesome. I think you should send it to NRA, perhaps through your local NRA rep. Maybe RF knows someone.

    • +1

      I’m thinking a personal campaign of gun owners taking pictures of themselves with a hand-written sign that says something to the fact that:

      “I am a law-abiding citizen.
      I love my family.
      I love my community.
      I love this country.
      I own guns.
      I’ve never committed murder or engaged in violence.”

    • Would TTAG, be the place for this? This is a blog (a great one btw), but it could also have an informational page which presented the true truth about guns. Include stats about DGUs, number of guns in circulation, benefits of standard cap mags, modern sporting rifles, conceal carry, etc., etc. I could go on, but you get the point. Post this online, email blitz, newspaper ads, and the all important YouTube video. I suggest Mr. Colion Nior, Julie Golib and Larry Potterfield as the spokesmen. Most importantly spread the world that guns are an issue of freedom, not hunting or sport. This needs to all be presented in a non tin foil hat way. Have NSSF and NRA kick in a couple million bucks for a Super Bowl commercial.

      • Have NSSF and NRA kick in a couple million bucks for a Super Bowl commercial.

        There is absolutely no chance that the NFL would permit such an ad. The NFL is as gun friendly as Diane Feinstein.

  4. I’m not sure how successful any advertising campaign can be when the enemy controls the media and broadcasts its propaganda 24 hours a day. They are executing Goebbels’ playbook to a T.

  6. So their poster child doesnt know how to properly hold a gun? It is kind of sad they’re trying to piggy back on OWS. And how misinformed are they that they don’t know that 99% of Americans own guns? If there was that much of a disparity would we even be having this discussion?

    Is that picture ‘shopped? What pistol has a guide rod longer than the barrel?

  7. They are in the mop up phase now. The seeds were sown a long long time ago. Many changes lead to this but as America traded a theistic world view for one that was much more relative – statism was not far behind.

    The men who started a rebellion and wrote the constitution look and sound like dinosaurs to many today. They did not fear a tyrranical king because they feared God. Archaic sounding words to be sure but then again so are words like right, wrong, justice, mercy, and peace.

    Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God – Some Dinosaur(s)
    Matt 10:28

  8. Firearm owners come in every race, age and gender may not be the worse idea to show this. The fact is, the amount of people applying for ccw permits have increased in multiple states over the last few years.

  9. The ad copy does not claim 99% of Americans own a gun. American gun owners are the real Joe and Jane average American private citizen; the 99% of our country’s population. We and our children are not the elitist living, working in, and going to school in secure castles and fortresses protected by security guards and the secret service.

  12. and since when do 99 percent of the U.S. population own a gun?

    I think it’s based on if you (falsely) assume that all homicides were committed by legal gun owners and divide homicides involving a gun by the roughly 80 million people who own guns, it comes out to literally 99.99% of gun owners do not harm anyone.

  17. If we, the law abiding gun owners, do not begin singing from the same hymn sheet, we will soon be illegal gun owners or can visit our guns in the museum.

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